View Full Version : Bloody Moths everywhere
the_chairman
16th Dec 2002, 13:27
Dont get me wrong I'm not dissing Tiger Moths - but how come most vintage flight packages = Tiger Moth. Surely the huge WW2 production lines of two-seater fighters = lots more choice.
Is it because alot of Tiger moths were built. 2 seaters were standard in that type and they're easier to restore/maintain?
WebPilot
16th Dec 2002, 14:43
No, it's because they're cheaper to operate!
treadigraph
16th Dec 2002, 16:40
You can get buy a ride in a Harvard at Shoreham if it's the rasp of a radial you prefer to the wind in your hair...
Huge production line of two-seat WW2 fighters? Er.....? Leaving aside for the moment the marketing aspects of flogging rides to smiling punters in the back of Boulton-Paul Defiants or Me 110s, there aren't that many WW2 fighters left flying (something like 100 plus Mustangs, fewer than 100 Spits, handful of Hurricanes, no Tiffies, a few Sea Furies, very few German aircraft of any description) and those that do fly are pampered and polished prizes which cost £££££££ per hour to run.
Most of these resource-intensive creations were scrapped very soon after the war when the materials were needed to rebuild civil society, and people with fresh memories of horrible experiences weren't as nostalgic about the machines as we are now (I'm not saying that we shouldn't preserve the machines as symbols of a moment in history which was both a high and a low point for western civilization. I'm simply observing that people had other things on their minds in the immediate post-war era).
You can stump up for a back seat ride in a P-51 in NZ and in Florida, and in the UK there are some Harvards, as mentioned above. Running costs and/or regulatory complexities appear to make it uneconomic or impracticable to run two seat fighter joy-rides in the UK.
As for Tiger Moths, there were always a good number of these in the civilian flying clubs, and the ex-military ones added to these numbers. They are relatively cheap to run, fairly robust and reliable, and practically indestructible. Many have been crashed and rebuilt, crashed and rebuilt, crashed and rebuilt forever. If ever you land somewhere in a Moth, some old chap will come up to you and say "ah, good old Dog Fox, I pranged her at Nairobi in '47: how is the old girl?"
Biggles Flies Undone
17th Dec 2002, 15:40
I spend my weekends on the South coast and the Harvard is a very pleasant sight and sound - but cheap it is not. Which probably answers the original question....
http://www.warbirdflying.com/
WebPilot
17th Dec 2002, 16:21
I took a flight in the Shoreham Harvard last summer and can thoroughly recommend it! My pilot i/c was Hunter veteran Rod Dean, a superlative flyer and all round good guy - money well spent for a fantastic flight in a great aircraft. After a bit of my feeble boring holes in the sky, Rod took control to take us back to the airfield and casually asked if we should "go upside down" - two loops, a roll and then a roll off the final lop and my day was complete!